The GOP majority of Nassau Legislature’s Rules Committee this week approved Republican Comptroller George Maragos’ request for $70,000 a year for a firm to compile the county’s 2012 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report — but not without some heated opposition. The contract, for three years, was more than double the $30,000 the other bidder for the job posted. That and the length of the contract...

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The GOP majority of Nassau Legislature’s Rules Committee this week approved Republican Comptroller George Maragos’ request for $70,000 a year for a firm to compile the county’s 2012 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report — but not without some heated opposition.

The contract, for three years, was more than double the $30,000 the other bidder for the job posted. That and the length of the contract drew fire from minority Democrats on the committee, especially Wayne Wink of Roslyn, who has said he is considering running for the comptroller post in November.

“It’s unprecedented and just strange that they would be outsourcing this,” Wink said. “Plus, the contractor will only compile the data given by the various departments. Three years seems long, too.”

After the 4-3 vote, Democrat Howard Weitzman, who lost the job to Maragos in 2009 and has said he will run for it again this year, was also critical. Noting that Maragos had also outsourced some work last year, he said: “At the rate he [Maragos] is going, he will outsource his entire office and find himself out of a job.”

Maragos responded that this contract “was required at the request of the accounting staff due to the retirement last November of the accounting director and the pending retirement of the deputy accounting director. The contract . . . has a 30-day clause and will be canceled once the expertise is acquired in-house,” he said. “The only qualified bidder was chosen to prepare this critical report.”